


Checkmate

by shadowstrangle



Category: Naruto
Genre: Comedy, Crack, Drabble, Established Relationship, Fluff, GaaLee, Gaara is a little gremlin brat, Gaara is competitive, Lee is unnecessarily good at Shogi, M/M, i'm fucking terrible with tags sksksks, they've been together for a few years in like all of my oneshots
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-20
Updated: 2020-10-20
Packaged: 2021-03-09 01:39:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,387
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27125980
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shadowstrangle/pseuds/shadowstrangle
Summary: “Would that be a checkmate?” Lee chirps after a few minutes, setting a piece down with a click.Gaara looks stunned, continuously glancing up from the board, to Lee, to the board, then to Lee, then to the board again. It’s not that he doesn’t have faith in Lee. It’s that Gaara wholeheartedly expected to win.And he didn’t.[the one where Gaara loses at shogi  and is such a sore loser that he consequently does not sleep for three days. Lee eventually has to take drastic measures.]done for GaaLee bingo -Last Resort!
Relationships: Gaara/Rock Lee
Comments: 11
Kudos: 107
Collections: GaaLee Bingo





	Checkmate

**Author's Note:**

> this idea is STRAIGHT fucking buffoonery and honestly I don't even know where the end came from but hopefully y'all enjoy and it makes you giggle

Rock Lee knows a lot about Gaara. 

A lot of things he knows are pleasant. For example, how Gaara snores if he sleeps deeply, or how he puts honey in his tea instead of sugar, or that he’ll save a spider in his house by putting it outside instead of killing it.

Lee loves every inch of Gaara- that is not to be mistaken. However, some of Lee’s humorous favorites are Gaara’s imperfections. And one that Gaara vehemently denies is that he’s a _sore loser._

Lee’s first introduction to this had obviously been watching Gaara in action as a fighter. Gaara hadn’t even come close to losing until he was older, and after being bested by Lee he no doubt did a lot of sulking. 

But it tends to be funnier when Gaara pouts after a game of cards, rolls his eyes after an arm wrestle, or pretends to be completely unphased when Lee is faster than him in arriving _absolutely anywhere_ (or maybe that’s also because he’s innately tardy.) He hates to lose. 

~~

It all starts with a harmless game of Shogi that Gaara and Shikamaru play while they’re all at Temari’s for dinner. 

Generally, Gaara is not one for Shogi and only plays when Shikamaru is in town. Shikamaru plays a good, challenging game, and he’s just about the only person Gaara is alright with losing to (he’s a genius, after all.) 

Temari makes them all something to eat, they play a few friendly games that go back and forth, they have some drinks, and it’s a pleasant night until Lee jovially suggests that he and Gaara play a game when they get home. 

“Since when do you like shogi?” Gaara laughs, his fingers intertwined with Lee’s on the walk home. The desert air is chilly, it’s past sunset, and instead he moves closer to hang onto Lee’s arm. 

“I’m not a particular fan of it, but I like the face you make when you’re thinking. And I would like to see who wins,” Lee answers.

~~

When they get home, Gaara has to dig up his old shogi set which he doesn’t even really use, but he sets it on the floor in the living room. He’s already changed upon coming home, wearing a rumpled longsleeve and a pair of sweatpants that appear to be Lee’s because they’re cuffed about two times around his ankles. 

“You don’t have pants of your own?” Teases Lee from the kitchen. 

“No,” Gaara responds rather innocently, even through his monotone.

“Right,” grins Lee, as he comes out with two cups of tea. One smells distinctly of honey rather than sweetener. 

He leaves the room again in an unspoken plan to change into something comfy, too. Considering Gaara had taken his go-to pair of pants, he changes into a pair of shorts and a long-sleeve as well. He even puts on a headband, a new innovation for him, to push his bangs off of his forehead. This is only something that he does in the comfort of his home, though- he always likes to look his best during the day!

When Lee comes back into the living room, he drops a pair of socks into Gaara’s lap. “So you don’t complain that your feet are cold later,” he quips. 

“I wouldn’t have complained,” says Gaara, although he is lying through his teeth, because he’s already slipping the socks on. 

“Forgive me for assuming,” Lee says, his eyes crinkling fondly as he laughs and sits across from Gaara.

“Your hair looks nice,” offers Gaara, and Lee laughs out loud. Gaara usually only gives a compliment if he means it, not to appease anyone, so it’s quite genuine. 

“Really? I thought it looked funny,” Lee absentmindedly touches the headband. 

“I like it,” answers Gaara, busy setting up shogi pieces. 

Lee is excited. Not only because this is fun, but because it’s the most charming quality time they’ve had in a while. Both of them have been so busy during this visit that they haven’t really gotten the chance to do anything. Lee doesn’t need a fancy dinner or an extravagant night in Suna. In fact, getting the chance to watch Gaara sip at a cup of tea in his grey sweatpants is probably the best thing he’s seen all week. 

Once the pieces are set, Gaara has a game face on, moving from crossed legs to sitting on his knees, eyes scrunched slightly as he focuses on his next move. 

Lee is admittedly not very good at Shogi, and a lot of his moves are risky and not at all premeditated, but he doesn’t really mind. He’s playing for the fun of it. 

“Would that be a checkmate?” Lee chirps after a few minutes, setting a piece down with a _click._

Gaara looks stunned, continuously glancing up from the board, to Lee, to the board, then to Lee, then to the board again. It’s not that he doesn’t have faith in Lee. It’s that Gaara wholeheartedly expected to win. 

And he didn’t. 

“No way,” Gaara huffs, searching the board for some sort of mistake. 

“Was it wrong?” Lee asks genuinely, searching as well.

“No,” Gaara grumbles, “you’re right. You win.”

“Oh!” Lee grins brightly. “Is that so? That was fast--”

“Set it up again,” says Gaara petulantly, crossing his arms over his chest. 

“Doesn’t the loser usually set up--”

A childish glare from Gaara has Lee putting his hands up in surrender. “Fine, fine. Perhaps you’ll win this time, Gaara-kun!”

Gaara’s face has turned exceptionally sour, watching as Lee sets up the pieces. Every inch of him wants to mimic, _perhaps you’ll win this time, Gaara-kun_ , right back to Lee but he knows that would be in poor taste and probably more the style of an insult he would throw at one of his siblings. Besides, he has to focus on winning the next game. 

“You play very carefully,” Lee notes when they’ve begun the next one, sipping at his tea.

“It’s simple strategy.”

“I like the risky moves! They get me excited,” Lee says. Ordinarily Gaara would be charmed by this, but he’s too absorbed into the game. 

“Good luck with this,” Gaara says, as he places a piece down. It should be a surefire win. Until…

“But couldn’t I just do this?” asks Lee, grinning as he jumps over Gaara’s piece, setting his own piece down with calculated confidence. “Checkmate!”

 _“What?!”_

Lee just laughs, “I guess I win again!”

Again, Gaara looks between the board and Lee, the board and Lee, the board and Lee. But this time, an expression of horror is painted on his face. “One more.”

“Gaara-kun, I would like to go to bed before the witching hour.”

“Just one more!”

“You have to set up, then,” Lee says, leaning back to rest on his hands, a triumphant smile on his face. He knows what he’s doing, now. Egging Gaara on like this probably isn’t the best idea, but he can’t help it. Lee loves a friendly competition. Also, playing with Gaara is fun. He’s the kind of competitor that always tries his hardest: Lee’s favorite kind!

“Fine,” Gaara huffs. He sits hunched over the board while he lays the pieces out again, eyes narrowed. This is the same way his face looks when he analyzes an enemy in battle. 

“It’s just shogi, Gaara-kun,” Lee says lightly. 

“Hush,” Gaara says in response, and then sits back when the board is set. 

Not only does Gaara lose the next game, he loses it within five minutes. There’s no deadlock of strategy or a staredown between them. Lee hops pieces over his like he’s been doing it for years, and Gaara wants to _scream._

Lee has an explanation for this, as he’s reasoned with most things about Gaara. Gaara is this viciously competitive because he’s always had to win to survive, whether he realized it or not. In addition, Gaara has been royalty his entire life- and feared royalty at that. It’s much easier to get anything you want when you threaten to kill somebody for it, and that had been Gaara’s go-to for many years. Lee thinks that perhaps since Rasa’s preferred methods of discipline included asssassination attempts, Gaara has never really seen anything as _just a game._ It’s not just that Gaara wants to win. It’s that he feels like he _needs_ to. 

“Can we go to bed now?” Lee yawns, stretching his arms over his head. “I would like to train early tomorrow.”

“Yes, we can go to bed,” Gaara mutters, turning from the shogi board with a scoff as he stands up. “Since when are you good at shogi?”

“I don’t really know! I’ve only played a few times,” Lee hums, and Gaara’s blood boils. 

It’s awfully hypocritical of Gaara to think this way, considering he hadn’t trained a day in his life until he was a teenager and was still a prodigy. 

“You must be some kind of prodigy,” says Gaara wryly. 

“I think I am anything but that,” Lee laughs. 

~

When they go to bed that night, Gaara can’t even lay down. He’s sitting straight up with crossed legs and arms, obviously thinking intensely about something. 

“Gaara-kun,” Lee says from next to him, voice playful but heavy with sleep, “if you would like to brood, that is fine, but could you turn the light off?”

“I’m not brooding!” 

“I see you playing shogi in your he--”

 _“I’m not playing shogi in my head!”_ He’s playing shogi in his head. 

“Oh, dear,” Lee yawns, and pushes himself up to sit. “Don’t tell me you’re letting this keep you up all night.”

“I never said I was!”

Lee laughs softly, tiredly tipping his head on Gaara’s shoulder. “Please lay down.”

“But--”

“Please? You have lots of meetings tomorrow.”

Gaara grumbles something under his breath, but reluctantly lays down. Lee is right. It’s just shogi. 

However, when it’s three in the morning and Gaara is still awake while Lee snores next to him, it’s admittedly _not_ just shogi. 

~

This goes on for three days. Not only does Gaara lose at every single rematch they’ve played, he loses with Shikamaru, too, when he begs for some brush-up matches and asks for advice. It’s beyond a game, now, it’s his ego that’s bruised. And the end result is that he’s slept about four hours in three days, and he’s starting to go a little bit crazy. 

That, and he still can’t win a damn game of shogi. 

Kankuro thinks it’s the funniest thing in the world. _You creepy little freak, just go to bed! It’s shogi. Wanna play with me? Oh, but then you’d be really offended if you lost._ Gaara puts sand in his lunch that afternoon. 

Temari can always tell when he’s acting like a sleepless gremlin, and urges him to _grow up, get some sleep, and stop worrying about some stupid game._

Lee finally steps in when he runs into Gaara accidentally pouring day-old coffee into a mug. “Gaara-kun, that’s yesterday’s,” he groans, “please don’t drink that.” 

“I knew that. What if I like it like that?” Gaara did not know that, and he does not _like it like that._

“You don’t like stale coffee,” Lee rolls his eyes, tugging his sleepless boyfriend away from the counter. “Sit. I’ll make you breakfast.”

Gaara is practically nodding off at the kitchen table.

“You know, this wouldn’t be happening if you were sleeping properly,” Lee chides. “We’re going to bed early tonight.”

“I’m fine,” Gaara retorts. 

“Kankuro said you spilled ink all over this morning’s documents and didn’t even notice. And you are usually wonderfully observant!”

“And what about it?” 

“Mm. Well,” Lee says breezily, “I do not think that added to the productivity of your day and certainly would have made your job harder. In addition, I wholeheartedly believe that someone is a little bit _tired,_ and a nap would help, but that is just a gentle observation.”

Gaara grunts.

As he continues to prattle on about his day, Lee knows he has two missions: one is to make Gaara go to sleep after this. The second is to make him feel better. The latter is more difficult than Lee would have anticipated. He knows Gaara would be furious if he let him win, and Lee doesn’t believe in that, so it’s certainly not an option. However, he’s desperately wondering how to boost Gaara’s confidence. 

“You know, I was thinking a lot today on my eight mile run,” says Lee, “And I realized I _still_ haven’t beat Neji. I felt rather low.”

“That’s absurd,” Gaara shakes his head. “That has nothing to do with your skill as a shinobi. Besides, you and Neji were always meant to be teammates, not enemies. You each excel in your own regard. Rivalry only makes you better, anyway.”

Lee wonders how Gaara can be as smart as he is and still not ever listen to his own advice. “Is that how you see it? What a refreshing perspective.” As he talks, he mixes a tiny bit of honey into Gaara’s tea, as well as some herbs. On his run back this morning, Lee had gone by the medical corp, and asked if they could provide him with a sleep aid. Temari had told him about it- they had often used it while Gaara was younger, because the the sleep would be deep enough that Shukaku wouldn’t plague Gaara. They’d slip it into a bowl of soup or a cup of water. It’s harmless and tasteless, but should have Gaara dozing off within the hour. Lee doesn’t quite remember the dosage, but he figures a spoonful should be alright. 

“I don’t think it’s refreshing, I think it’s common sense,” says Gaara, and Lee can’t help but laugh out loud as he sits across from him. 

“Is that so?”

“I don’t understand why that’s funny,” Gaara says flatly, and mumbles in addition, “thank you for breakfast.”

“Because you haven’t slept in three days due to the outcome of a shogi game.”

“Don’t be ridiculous, Lee.”

“No? That’s not it?” Lee leans forward with his chin on his hand, smiling over at Gaara. “Just normal old Gaara, right?”

Lee has a way of making Gaara see how utterly insane he can be. It’s embarrassing and gratifying at the same time. However, the gentleness he nudges Gaara with can’t be championed. Lee always speaks carefully, choosing his words delicately and making sure they’re surrounded in positivity. Besides this, he’s dutifully honest, though not in a way that ever makes Gaara feel bad about himself. It’s always things like _Gaara-kun, your coat looks great, but you missed a button,_ or _Darling, you’re the smartest man I know, but you’ve misspelled the header of that form,_ or the recent _Gaara-kun, I will love you forever no matter what, but I would appreciate it if you stopped leaving the toilet seat up._

“Me being competitive has nothing to do with my sleep schedule.” Gaara sips at his tea. 

“Well, just in case it does,” Lee says, “I think you are an incredibly good shogi player. You are also very good at _21_ and throwing dice,” he praises. “In addition, you make the best toast I have ever eaten! And you have very neat handwriting, and nice hair, and--”

Over the rim of his cup, Gaara is smiling. 

“--and I am honored to play you in whatever game you choose, regardless of who wins or loses!” Lee declares. 

“Stop with the antics,” says Gaara, though Lee has made him laugh, his mouth spread into a grin. 

“They are not antics! They are essences of truth!”

“Alright, alright. I get what you’re saying. It’s just shogi,” Gaara waves his hand dismissively. His eyes flicker over to Lee as he finishes the rest of his tea. “But you’re playing one more game with me later.”

“After you get some sleep.”

“I will, later. I actually had something to do, but I can’t for the life of me remember…” Gaara yawns, blinking slowly. He’s suddenly much sleepier than he had been before. 

“You’re tired!”

“I wasn’t a few minutes ago.”

“That’s because your body has had a chance to rest now that you are sitting,” Lee declares. He certainly hadn’t expected the herbs to start working so quickly! He supposes they are medical grade, though. 

“Perhaps,” says Gaara. 

Collecting both of their plates and cups, Lee busies himself momentarily with tidying up the kitchen. Gaara insists that he can leave the mess, but Lee insists otherwise. Whenever Lee isn’t around, Gaara lives like a seventeen year old boy. So Lee _will_ be cleaning the kitchen, he thinks, as he starts to wash dishes that had been left out from last night. 

After a few minutes, Lee assumes the quiet between them to be a comfortable silence, but when he hears a soft _thump,_ he turns around to see that Gaara has not only fallen asleep, but slumped over on the kitchen table. “Oh, dear,” he says to no one in particular, because now that he thinks about it, the medi-nin he spoke to earlier had said _teaspoon,_ not _tablespoon._

Dishes forgotten, Lee now has to scoop Gaara out of his kitchen chair, whispering a gentle “sorry,” to him even though he’s fast asleep. “You would think they wouldn’t have something so potent available for public use,” Lee tuts more to himself than anyone else as he carries Gaara upstairs to bed. “They did say it was organic, though…”

He works too hard, Gaara. When Lee sets him down and bundles him in blankets, he’s happy to see that his face is finally relaxed. It’s worrisome when he doesn’t take care of himself. Sometimes Lee has to take care of Gaara because Gaara unconsciously refuses. 

Having finished his training for the morning, Lee settles into bed next to him and sits up against the pillows with a book. He’s typically not this lazy, but he also wants to keep an eye on his accidentally-drugged boyfriend. 

Next to him, Gaara is fast asleep on his stomach, one arm unconsciously strewn over Lee’s lap and the other holding his pillow. He’s taking up much of the bed, but Lee is too charmed to move him, especially when his face is so _adorably_ _smushed_ into the pillow. He’s snoring. He denies that he snores, but he absolutely does.

When Gaara wakes up, it’s dark out. In fact, it’s almost eleven at night. Lee is next to him, up reading something, and he doesn’t even remember getting to bed. Weren’t they just having breakfast?

“Why didn’t you wake me up?” Gaara mumbles groggily when he looks at the time, then back at Lee. He’s slowly pushing himself to sit up. His hair is sticking all the way up. 

The truth of the matter is that Lee tried. Four times. “You looked like you needed the rest,” he says innocently. 

“Did I pass out?” Gaara rubs his eyes. The pillowcase wrinkles are imprinted on the side of his cheek. 

“Yes,” Lee says, a little too quickly. “Something like that.” It’s not a lie, technically. He could never lie to Gaara, but he’s a little bit too embarrassed for the truth right now. Besides, that’s happened before, and it serves for a good lesson. 

“Oh,” Gaara blinks. “That explains it. I feel like I’ve taken one of those herb treatments from the hospital… they always give me dreamless sleep.”

“Really?” Lee’s eyes are wide. 

“Mm. Yeah. Temari used to sneak them into my drinks,” Gaara yawns. “It was silly. As if I wouldn’t know something was tampered with. I’m not twelve anymore.”

“Right!” Lee laughs bashfully, “absolutely right. You’re too sharp, Gaara-kun!”

Gaara looks at him skeptically, “...right.” He makes a noise as he stretches his arms over his head, listening to his shoulders crack while he rolls them back. “In any case, I’m sorry for worrying you.”

“It’s fine,” Lee chirps. “At least you got some rest! That’s the important part!”

“I suppose,” Gaara says, “Except now I’ll be up all night.”

“I’m sure you can find something to entertain yourself. Would you like to read my book?”

“No,” Gaara sighs, and a wry smile comes to his lips. “Want to play sho--”

“--Gaara-kun, with my utmost love and respect,” says Lee, kissing his cheek, “absolutely not.”

**Author's Note:**

> DOHKDKJAKSJFLSJLJJF i have nothing to say for myself  
> i really honestly can't believe these mf haven't done this to gaara before. like shut up and go to sleep gremlin!!  
> please do send me headcanons, fun things, or a simple hello on tumblr @shadowstrangle  
> have a wonderful day!


End file.
